Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio on Monday informed that the Chief Minister’s Health Insurance Scheme is centered to provide cashless medical treatment to the less privileged with a budget coverage of five lakhs for the general category and twenty lakhs for government employees.
Delivering the budget speech for the year 2023-2024 during the ongoing first session of the 14th Nagaland Legislative Assembly (NLA), the CM said that the state has also implemented the Micro-Finance scheme under the direct supervision of the Deputy Commissioner with a vision to promote entrepreneurship in the state and impact at the grassroots level.
Special facilitation centres will be set up to assist entrepreneurs in availing loans under this flagship programme, he added.
Talking about over-employment in the state, he said that the Nagaland Staff Selection Board (NSSB) has been set up to promote meritocracy and transparency in recruitment.
Highlighting the importance of investment, he maintained that the state has the potential in tourism, hospitality, forest and environment, agro-based industries, organic produce and informed that the funds and value of goods received by the state stands at about Rs. 82 crore.
“We will collaborate with specialised agencies and resources person to hold investment meet in metropolitan cities, Destination Nagaland Conclaves and targeted 3 submits” he added.
Financial issues
Meanwhile, CM Rio declared that the annual development for the year 2023-2024 has been fixed at Rs. 82,000 lakh and mentioned that this reflects an increase of Rs. 4,500 lakh or 5.49% over the current financial year.
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Rs. 25,000 lakh out of Rs. 82,000 lakh have been earmarked for state matching share for Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) programmes to ensure the release of funds by the Central government, he added.
Meanwhile, Rio lamented departmental progress and stated that the trend of neglecting the core activities by the department is on the rise and called for it to be addressed.
Most departments are paying less attention to their core activities and focusing more on the construction of offices and residential buildings. This trend needs to be curbed to ensure that the departments are positively impacting the lives of the public, he added.
He mentioned that the state has been undertaken in the domain of CSS by their integration with the Public Finance Management System (PFMS) portal for an efficient and transparent performance of the departments.
For this reason, I intend to have in-depth reviews of the implementation of the CSS programmes in the state on a quarterly basis, Rio said and reminded the concerned departments to prepare themselves for the start of the next financial year.
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